Ode To Joy

I’ve got a treat for you, my readers.

A friend of mine wrote an amazing blog post titled “Learn, Grow, and Persevere Through Your Mistakes.“  And I get to share it with you all!

Join me as I welcome the very first guest poster on this blog—-Owen Godbold!

A bio before we start…in his own words.

“Hi, I’m Owen Godbold, number five of eight children.  I’ve been homeschooled for all 17 years of my life and enjoy reading, writing, and informal debate. When I’m not vlogging about “mob-stocking herbivorous solar conversion lignified carbon sequestration fertilization”, I enjoy dogs, chickens, practically any other animal  (I have a love/hate relationship with cats), and swing dancing.”

Here he is with one of his chicks:

And—drumroll please—the fantastic article. Enjoy!!

Learn, grow, and persevere through your mistakes

I make a lot of mistakes. Every day I wake up and begin a ten to twelve-hour day of mistakes. Today, I used too much starch while ironing my shirt. I foolishly tried to toast a bagel, spread Nutella on it, find a pair of khakis for my first job interview and think about what vlog I would release that day all at the same time.

I make a lot of mistakes. When asked if I was could write this blog post, I decided that I would write a hilarious story about “The Power of Laughter” detailing how we need laughter in our lives. I was going to start with a humorous joke in italics: “An agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac lies awake at night wondering if Dog exists.” After writing for about ten minutes and collecting seven different resources from “Psychology Today” and “Science Daily” I found how boring it was. Granted, there are worse ways to spend your space for a blog post on, but this was simply…mundane. Mind numbing. Yawn-inducing. The “Power of Laughter” was not to be.

I was then going to transition the physiological effects of laughter onto a short story of why people find a video I released (two fighting baby chicks) so entertaining. There’s not a whole lot you can tell about a 45-second video, though. I placed it on the pile of mistakes.

I make a lot of mistakes. Self-doubt plagues me at times and questions fill my head demanding answers and exploiting my fear of making mistakes. “Should I have encouraged my players there?” “Could I have done better as a coach?” “I stuttered in that video, maybe I need to be clearer, could I have been clearer?”

It’s not just mistakes but their consequences that leave an impact. From almost spilling a bin full of baby chicks on the ground, because I tripped on a hose, to staying up until 2 AM because I was procrastinating throughout the day: mistakes hector me around.

There is a line between mistakes and accidents. Sometimes we can’t help what happens. My 3rd oldest brother one time drove a car off an embankment and almost killed me, my three younger siblings, and my mother. Was that a mistake? Yes, but accidents happen—what MATTERS is how we react to accidents and our mistakes. How we LEARN from our mistakes is the most important part of life.

Sure, you left the electric fencing off and a fox could have come and eaten ALL of the chickens. But he didn’t, and now you know (fear is a great inducer I’ve found…) to ALWAYS double, triple, or even wake up in the middle of the night to quadruple check the electric fence.

What matters in life is not the mistakes, but how we let the mistakes refine us (or how we define the mistakes). You can either get up after you lose and try again, or you can slink away in disgrace. True heroes are the ones who keep fighting, who keep trying, even though their pathway is littered with mistakes of all shapes and sizes. This depends on the situation, of course. For some cases a mistake might mean touching the green wire to the wrong socket (a shock, no doubt, but it wouldn’t kill you), or accidentally pouring oil into the hot tractor (this might just kill you), or pouring jet fuel into a homemade bomb experiment (no, I have never done this, but it would kill you). Whether you’re feeling the small shock in your elbow, being responsible and somehow pouring the oil out of the tractor, or making sure your legal papers are all in order as you blow up in a fiery jet fuel cloud of human somethingness—get back up from your situation, take care of what you did wrong, and face the music of hero-ness.

Taking care of our problems and pushing through our mistakes does not seem very superhero like, though. Whenever we think of heroes, we picture flying capes, masks, and amazing superpowers, not a “self-help” book by just another world famed psychologist. Everyday heroes exist from the firefighters that died in 9/11 to the single working mother of two children. These true heroes make their bed, iron their shirt properly, do not multitask, and get their A-game on. These heroes have learned and grown from their mistakes.

I make a lot of mistakes. It is time I stepped across the line and learned from them. It is time you and I joined the ranks of the true superheroes. Those who learn, grow, and persevere through their mistakes.

—Owen Godbold (Virginia Farmer Wannabe)

Link to his regularly updated YouTube channel: Virginia Farmer Wannabe

And a few pictures of his growing farm to whet your appetite for his highly entertaining and informative videos:

Remember to share your thoughts and comments below! 🙂